From April 5 through April 9, NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter will conduct a third campaign to check whether the Phoenix Mars Lander has come back to life after experiencing a Martian arctic winter it was not designed to survive.+ Read more(April 02)

Beginning Jan. 18, NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter will listen for possible, though improbable, radio transmissions from the Phoenix Mars Lander, which completed five months of studying an arctic Martian site in November 2008. + Read more(January 11)

Favorable chemistry and episodes with thin films of liquid water during ongoing, long-term climate cycles may sometimes make the area where NASA's Phoenix Mars mission landed last year a favorable environment for microbes.+ Read more(July 02)

About half a year before Phoenix began digging into the arctic plain of Mars, six scientists traveled to one of the coldest, driest places on Earth for soil-and-ice studies that would end up aiding analysis of the Mars data.+ Read more(February 05)

This image, taken on December 21, shows the Phoenix Mars Lander during the last waning days of northern hemisphere summer. This is the first image targeted to the lander since it ceased activity.+ Read more(January 02)

After nearly a month of daily checks to determine whether Martian NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander would be able to communicate again, the agency has stopped using its Mars orbiters to hail the lander and listen for its beep.+ Read more(December 01)

NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander has won recognition from Popular Science magazine as an innovation worthy of the publication's "Best of What's New" Grand Award in the aviation and space category.+ Read more(November 13)

In a race against time and the elements, engineers with NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander mission hope to extend the lander's survival by gradually shutting down some of its instruments and heaters, starting today. + Read more(October 28)

Three members of the Phoenix team were recognized for leading the successful mission to Mars: Barry Goldstein, the Phoenix project manager from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory; Peter Smith, the principal investigator from the University of Arizona, Tuscon; and Ed Sedivy, the Phoenix program manager at Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Denver.+ Read more(October 15)

The Phoenix Lander over the weekend successfully weathered a regional dust storm that temporarily lowered its solar power, and the team is back investigating the Red Planet's northern plains.+ Read more(October 14)

NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander has been digging and excavating Martian soil with its nearly 8-foot-long robotic arm. New images, like this one in 3D, show the trenchwork taken on Oct. 7. + Full image and caption(October 10)

The next soil sample that NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander will deliver to its deck instruments will go to the fourth of the four cells of Phoenix's wet chemistry laboratory, according to the Phoenix team's current plans.+ Read more(September 09)

A fork-like conductivity probe has sensed humidity rising and falling beside Phoenix, but when stuck into the ground, its measurements so far indicate soil that is thoroughly
and perplexingly dry.+ Read more(September 04)

NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander scientists and engineers are continuing to dig into the area around the lander with the spacecraft's robotic arm, looking for new materials to analyze and examining the soil and ice subsurface structure.+ Read more(August 20)

Mission scientists today discussed their current investigation into percholate salts detected in Martian soil. The salts are neither good nor bad for life, said one scientist, but do make us reassess how we think about life on Mars.+ View release(August 05)

Scientists and engineers on NASA's Phoenix Mars Mission spent the weekend examining how the icy soil on Mars interacts with the scoop on the lander's robotic arm, while trying different techniques to deliver a sample to one of the instruments.+ Read more(July 28)

NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander's robotic arm scoop is primed and ready to collect a soil sample from the northern region of Mars to analyze for the presence of water and other possible ingredients.+ Read more(July 25)

Phoenix Mars Lander has groomed the bottom of a shallow trench to prepare for collecting a sample to be analyzed from a hard subsurface layer where the soil may contain frozen water.+ Read more(July 24)

The latest activities of NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander have moved the mission closer to analyzing a sample of material, possibly icy soil, from a hard layer at the bottom of a shallow trench beside the lander.+ Read more(July 23)

To coordinate with observations made by an orbiter flying repeatedly overhead, NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander is working a schedule Monday that includes staying awake all night for the first time.+ Read more(July 21)

A powered rasp on the back of the robotic arm scoop of NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander successfully drilled into the frozen soil and loosened material that was collected in the lander's scoop.+ View release(July 16)

NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander is using its Robotic Arm to enlarge an exposure of hard subsurface material expected to yield a sample of ice-rich soil for analysis in one of the lander's ovens.+ Read more(July 14)

NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander's science and engineering teams are testing methods to get an icy sample into the Robotic Arm scoop for delivery to the Thermal and Evolved Gas Analyzer (TEGA).+ Read more(July 08)

NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander used its Robotic Arm to deliver a second sample of soil for analysis by the spacecraft's wet chemistry laboratory, data received from Phoenix on Sunday night confirmed.+ Read more(July 07)

NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander scraped to icy soil in the "Wonderland" area on Thursday, June 26, confirming that surface soil, subsurface soil and icy soil can be sampled at a single trench. + Read more(June 27)

NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander performed its first wet chemistry experiment
on Martian soil flawlessly yesterday, returning a wealth of data that
for Phoenix scientists was like winning the lottery.+ View release(June 26)

NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander has delivered a scoop of Martian
soil from the "Snow White" trenches to the optical microscope for analysis
tomorrow, June 24, the 29th Martian day of the mission, or Sol 29.
+ Read more(June 23)

Dice-size crumbs of bright material have vanished from inside a trench where they were photographed by NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander four days ago, convincing scientists that the material was frozen water that vaporized after digging exposed it.+ Read more(June 19)

NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander began digging in an area called "Wonderland"
early Tuesday, taking its first scoop of soil from a polygonal surface feature
within the "national park" region that mission scientists have been preserving
for science.
+ Read more(June 17)

One of the ovens on NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander continued baking its first sample of Martian soil over the weekend, while the Robotic Arm dug deeper into the soil to learn more about white material first revealed on June 3.+ Read more(June 16)

The team operating NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander plans to instruct the spacecraft in the next few days to use its Robotic Arm to sprinkle a spoonful of Martian soil onto a wheel that will rotate the sample into place for viewing by the spacecraft's Optical Microscope.+ Read more(June 10)

Engineers are testing a revised method for delivering soil samples to laboratory instruments on Phoenix's deck now that researchers appreciate how clumpy the soil is at the landing site. + Read more(June 09)

On Sunday, mechanical shakers inside the Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer on Phoenix will attempt to loosen clumped soils on the device's screens to allow material to fall into the oven for analysis later in the week.+ Read more(June 08)

The arm of NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander released a handful of clumpy Martian soil onto a screened opening of a laboratory instrument on the spacecraft Friday, but the instrument did not confirm that any of the sample passed through the screen.
+ View release(June 07)

Two practice rounds of digging and dumping the clumpy soil at the Martian arctic site this week gave scientists and engineers gathered at the University of Arizona confidence to begin using Phoenix's Robotic Arm to deliver soil samples to instruments on the lander deck.+ Read more(June 04)

NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander reached out and touched the Martian soil for the first time on Saturday, May 31, the first step in a series of actions expected to bring soil and ice to the lander's experiments.+ Read more(June 01)

A telescopic camera in orbit around Mars caught a view of NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander suspended from its parachute during the lander's successful arrival at Mars Sunday evening, May 25.+ View release(May 26)

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Phoenix spacecraft landed in the northern polar region of Mars today to begin three months of examining a site chosen for its likelihood of having frozen water within reach of the lander's robotic arm.+ Read more(May 25)

NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander sped on Sunday morning toward its arrival at Mars, as the tug of the Red Planet's gravity accelerated the craft during the final day of its trip from Earth to Mars.+ Read more(May 25)

Phoenix mission members are now updating our blog as landing day approaches. We will be blogging from JPL's mission control on Sunday, May 25, as the spacecraft touches down on Mars.+ Read blog, post your comments(May 19)

NASA news briefings, live commentary and updates before and after the scheduled Sunday, May 25 arrival of the agency's Phoenix Mars Lander will be available on NASA Television and on the Web.+ Read more(May 16)

When NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander descends to the surface of the Red Planet on May 25, few will be watching as closely as those who have spent years planning, analyzing and conducting tests to prepare for the dramatic and nerve-wracking event. + View feature(May 09)

Three Mars spacecraft are adjusting their orbits to be over the right place at the right time to listen to NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander as it enters the Martian atmosphere on May 25.+ View release(February 28)

NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander spacecraft, launched Aug. 4, is testing its hardware and software as it flies to Mars. A camera mounted on the craft's robotic arm took this test photo showing the scoop at the end of the arm, verifying that the camera works.+ Read more(September 07)

NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander will carry a DVD with names of people from around the world. About 200,000 names have been enrolled so far, and the deadline to get your name on board is Feb. 12. Phoenix will launch in August 2007 and reach Mars in May 2008.+ Sign up to send your name(February 05)